In order to charge a battery mounted on the vehicle body of an electric vehicle (EV), hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), etc., the vehicle is provided with a charging inlet device with which a charging connector is mated (see Patent Literature 1). An example of such a charging inlet device is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.
As shown in FIG. 1, a charging inlet device 100 includes an inlet housing 110. The inlet housing 110 includes an inlet body 120 having a charging port 121, a connector housing 130 arranged in the inlet body 120, and a vehicle body mounting flange 140 projecting outwardly from the inlet body 120.
The charging port 121 of the inlet body 120 is open towards the outer side of a vehicle body. As shown in FIG. 2, the connector housing 130 defines terminal receiving chambers 131 in which terminals 150 in contact with respective mating terminals (not shown) are arranged. Each terminal receiving chamber 131 has a wire exit hole 132 on the side opposite to the side from which a charging connector (not shown) is inserted.
Upon insertion into the connector housing 130, each terminal 150 is inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 131 from the wire exit hole 132 and engaged with a lance 133 in the fully inserted position (see FIG. 2). The terminal 150 is received in the terminal receiving chamber 131 and held in place by the engagement force of the lance 133.
In the following, mounting of the above-described charging inlet device 100 to the vehicle body is described with reference to FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, an electrical wire W is first inserted into an inlet mounting hole P1 of a vehicle body panel P from the outer side of the vehicle body. The charging inlet device 100 is then inserted into the inlet mounting hole P1 and the vehicle body mounting flange 140 is mounted on the vehicle body panel P. The vehicle body mounting flange 140 and the vehicle body panel P are finally fastened by bolts or the like (not shown), thus completing the mounting.